University Library > English 102

English 102
Freshman English
Professor Thomson

General Sources | Finding Books | Finding Articles | Getting Help

This list of resources has been compiled for Dr. Thomson's sections of English 102: Freshman English - these are not the only resources which can be used for completing the research project, but more as a starting point for your research.


 

General Sources

Library Catalog (University Library)
Find books, videos, journals, pamphlets and government publications on your topic.

Articles in Journals, Magazines and Newspapers (University Library)
Whether you need to find articles in a particular subject or you know the name of the database to use, the Articles in Journals, Magazines and Newspapers page can direct you to the right place.

Journal Holdings: Electronic & Print (University Library) UWW access only
Want to find out whether we subscribe to a particular journal, magazine or newspaper in the Library or online? The Library has access to thousands of titles and you will find them all here!

SuperSearch UWW access only
Can't decide which article database to use? Select the "Custom Search" within SuperSearch -- then choose a category to search. You'll be searching across up to eight databases at once!

Citation Linker (University Library) UWW access only
If you already have an article citation, Citation Linker will allow you to type in the citation and link to a menu of options for finding the full text of the article.

Citing References: MLA Style (University Library)
Don't forget to cite your sources using MLA style.

 

Finding Books

To find books and other University Library materials, such as government documents or videos, about a particular topic, search the Library Catalog. To begin, use the Basic Search and check that Keyword(s) is selected in the Search By menu. Click in the Search For box and type a combination of terms that describe what you are looking for. Enclose any phrases of two or more words between quotation marks. Combine multiple terms with search connectors (and, or, not). To find variations of a word that begin with the same set of letters, use the truncations symbol, which is a question mark (?), at the end of the root. Click on Search to run the query. For example, if you were researching teen pregnancy, you could use the following searches:

prevention and "teenage pregnancy"
prevention and teen? and pregnancy

For more detailed information about using the catalog, including additional search tips, check out the guides How to Use the Library Catalog: Basic Search and How to Use the Library Catalog: Additional Features.

Remember: If you can't find books on a particular topic, there's always Universal Borrowing. The free service lets you request books from other UW libraries and have them sent here in 2-4 business days.

 

Finding Articles

General databases are a great starting place for finding articles on your topic. They have a variety of publication types (newspapers, magazines, trade publications, and scholarly journals) and many articles are available full-text online. Once you have the basics covered, you may want to use a more discipline or subject-specific database, which you can find on the Articles in Journals, Magazines and Newspapers page, conveniently arranged by subject. Below are a few general databases that you could use:

  • Academic Search Premier (EBSCOhost) UW-W users only How to Use EbscoHost
    Covers a wide range of popular and scholarly publications in many subject area including the social sciences, humanities, education and more.
    This is the database we used in class.
  • OmniFile Full Text (WilsonWeb) UW-W users only How to Use WilsonWeb
    Search several databases from WilsonWeb at one time, covering a wide variety of subjects. Databases include: Business Full Text, General Science Full Text, Humanities Full Text, Readers' Guide Full Text, and Social Sciences Full Text.
  • ProQuest Newspapers (ProQuest) UW-W users only How to Use ProQuest
    This database contains ProQuest Newsstand, Wisconsin Newsstand and several large newspapers. A good place to look for information that ties your topic in locally.

Remember: Use the Scholarly Journal v. Popular Magazine Articles guide to determine whether an article is considered scholarly. Although databases allow you to limit to scholarly journal articles only, content not deemed academic may appear in your search results.

Sometimes the full text of an article will be in the database being searched. If it is not, a Find It button may appear which can be used to locate the full text. If there is no Find It button, either search the Citation Linker for an article citation, the Journal Holdings List list for periodical title, or the Library Catalog for a book title (some of these databases also index books) to see if the library owns or subscribes to a particular item. The University Library does not necessarily own every item listed in online databases. If there is something you want, but it is not in the Library, you may borrow it using Interlibrary Loan via ILLiad for a small fee (usually $1).

 

Getting Help

The Library is here to assist you in any way possible. Please contact us with any questions that you may have.

  • Contact the Reference Desk by phone at 262.472.1032 or via email or chat if you need help with your research or using an electronic resource.
  • Contact the Interlibrary Loan Office at 262.472.5524 or via e-mail at libill@uww.edu with inquiries regarding ILL or Document Delivery requests or questions about the service.
  • Check out the How to Use Guides for help with the library catalog and most of the databases.
  • For technical issues such as difficulties accessing resources off-campus, check out the Troubleshooting guide or contact the Reference Desk.
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